Reduction In Energy Consumption Costs Research Articles

IDENTIFYING THE POTENTIAL OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE ROUTING FOR BLOOD DISTRIBUTION IN EMERGENCY REQUESTS

This study is focusing on identifying the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) routing for blood distribution in emergency requests in Sri Lanka compared to existing transportation modes. Capacitated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Routing Problem was used as the methodology to find the optimal distribution plan between blood banks directing emergency requests. The developed UAV routing model was tested for different instances to compare the results. Finally, the proposed distribution process via UAVs was compared with the current distribution process for the objective function set up in the model and other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including energy consumption savings and operational cost savings. The average percentage of distribution time re-duction, energy consumption cost reduction, and operational cost per day reduction utilizing UAVs were determined to be 58.57%, 96.35%, and 61.20%, respectively, for the instances tested using the model highlighting the potential of UAVs. Therefore, the deficiencies in Sri Lanka's present blood delivery system can be addressed using UAVs' potential for time, cost, and energy savings. The ability to save time through the deployment of UAVs to the fleet during emergency situations plays a crucial role in preventing the loss of human lives.

Assessment of impacts of peak-shaving programs on energy costs in the residential sector

Demand-side management, which includes various methods and mechanisms, plays a significant role in the management of energy systems. This paper examines the impacts of different demand-side management methods on energy costs of a residential load. In this regard, three scenarios have been developed: on-site energy generation, energy storage, and finally, load shifting during peak hours of energy consumption. The three proposed scenarios along with the basic state, were modeled with the help of the System Advisor Model and MATLAB. The modeling results showed that according to the load management process during the peak hours of the year, all three scenarios lead to a reduction in energy consumption costs.

Energy Consumption Scheduling as a Fog Computing Service in Smart Grid

The advent of smart grid technologies provides new tools and services to optimally manage the electricity grids. One of the most interesting services that emerged with the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is energy demand management. This service permits us to face the issues caused by the ever-increasing energy demand such as grid congestion during peak hours, increasing energy generation costs, and even blackouts. In this paper, we investigate the problem of consumer-side optimization of residential energy demand. Our main aim is to better distribute the energy consumption over a day to avoid or reduce the demand during peak hours. Hence, we propose a fog computing-based model for energy demand scheduling using energy consumption cost as an incentive. In this model, the fog nodes schedule the appliances’ operations in order to reduce the individual and global energy bills whilst respecting consumers’ preferences. The proposed approach performs a multi-agent system-based cooperative scheduling game with minimal interactions between the nodes. Moreover, we present a fog nodes’ assignment scheme to decide which node will handle which appliances’ schedules. The nodes’ assignment strategy aims to optimize the use of fog nodes’ resources whilst reducing the scheduling process latency. The performance evaluation shows that the use of fog computing can achieve interesting results in terms of the reduction of energy consumption cost. For instance, the energy consumption during peak hour decreases by more than 25% from 670 kWh to 500 kWh when the scheduling game is performed. As a consequence, the energy consumption cost decreases by 7% from 806 € to 750 € .

Energy cost reduction in residential nanogrid under constraints of renewable energy, customer demand fitness and binary battery operations

Intermittence of renewable energy is a challenge to demand side management in distributed grid technologies. Time-of-use tariffs are often applied to implement traditional strategies such as peak shaving and valley filling that are more functional to conventional grids. Time-of-use tariffs are however not suitable to matching customer demands as the periodic charges are fixed and cannot be match with stochastic renewable power generations. This paper proposes a time-of-use fitness in a grid connected photovoltaic/wind/battery nanogrid for energy cost reduction and maintained customer comforts. The proposed method considers three configurations of the nanogrid optimized using nested integer linear programming. Fitness functions are applied to either critical or flexible demands based on real-time residential consumptions, renewable generation and main grid imported power. Demand criticalities and customer fitness are used in preserving customer comforts. The method achieves 1.72–5.75% and 15.63–21.88% reduction in energy consumption costs against $120.30 and $145.14 flat and conventional time-of-use rates respectively in the nanogrid configurations. Use of battery in binary states of operation, as demand or supply further reduces consumption costs by 13.38–43.40% and 28.20–53.09% against the benchmarks. It is envisaged that better performance of the method can be achieved by multiplying operational scenarios of the battery.

RETROFITTING EXISTING OFFICE BUILDING FOR EFFICIENT ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE

This study focuses on designing an efficient energy utilization protocol for the University of Lagos Senate office building, to ensure the reduction of energy consumption, reduce the cost of power and also ensure energy efficiency. Pre-retrofitting, the energy consumption cost for the UNILAG senate office building was calculated to be ₦20, 236, 962 i.e. 776.78 EUI (kWh/m²/y) using the appliance approach. The impact of various retrofitting methods was also simulated and measured utilizing BIM tools such as Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Insight. This resulted in an estimated reduction in energy consumption cost to between ₦19,304,038.05 and 18,549,199.3 post retrofitting, this translates to about 712 EUI (kWh/m²/y). Results show that a 4.61-8.34% reduction in energy usage for the senate house can be achieved using the methods proposed in this research.

Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Soybean and Rice Bran Oil: Yield and Extraction Kinetics

Microwave-assisted solvent extraction has the potential to replace traditional solvent extraction of oils and fats from a variety of feedstock. The purpose of this study was to optimize oil extraction parameters for a batch microwave system from two feedstocks: soybeans and rice bran. Solvent-feedstock mixtures were exposed to microwave radiation for different time-temperature combinations ranging from 60C to 120C for up to 20 min with simultaneous magnetic stirring. The solvent (ethanol) to feedstock ratio used was 3:1. After extraction, solid-liquid separation was performed in a vacuum filter, and ethanol was evaporated from the filtrate in a vacuum centrifuge. Results showed that the oil yield changed with temperature and achieved a maximum value in a relatively short time (order of minutes). Continuous exposure after this time did not increase the oil yield. The results compared well with traditional solvent extraction, especially when accounting for the extremely short extraction times (min vs. h). Maximum oil yields of 17.3% and 17.2% at 20 min and 120C were achieved by microwave extraction as compared to 11.3% and 12.4% using control extraction for soybeans and rice bran, respectively. The major advantage of microwave-assisted solvent extraction is the reduced time of extraction required to obtain ~95% of total recoverable oil, with corresponding reduction in energy consumption costs per unit of oil extracted.

Microwave Assisted Extraction of Biodiesel Feedstock from the Seeds of Invasive Chinese Tallow Tree

Chinese tallow tree (TT) seeds are a rich source of lipids and have the potential to be a biodiesel feedstock, but currently, its invasive nature does not favor large scale cultivation. Being a nonfood material, they have many advantages over conventional crops that are used for biodiesel production. The purpose of this study was to determine optimal oil extraction parameters in a batch-type and laboratory scale continuous-flow microwave system to obtain maximum oil recovery from whole TT seeds using ethanol as the extracting solvent. For the batch system, extractions were carried out for different time-temperature combinations ranging from 60 to 120 degrees C for up to 20 min. The batch system was modified for continuous extractions, which were carried out at 50, 60, and 73 degrees C and maintained for various residence times of up to 20 min. Control runs were performed under similar extraction conditions and the results compared well, especially when accounting for extremely short extraction times (minutes vs hours). Maximum yields of 35.32% and 32.51% (by weight of dry mass) were obtained for the continuous and batch process, respectively. The major advantage of microwave assisted solvent extraction is the reduced time of extraction required to obtain total recoverable lipids, with corresponding reduction in energy consumption costs per unit of lipid extracted. This study indicates that microwave extraction using ethanol as a solvent can be used as a viable alternative to conventional lipid extraction techniques for TT seeds.

Integrating an intermittent aerator in a swine wastewater treatment system for land-limited conditions

A full scale swine (300 pigs) waste treatment system, including a solid/liquid separation unit (3 m 3) with a solids holding tank (1.2 m 3) and a liquid holding tank (20 m 3), two anaerobic reactors (10 m 3 each) in series, an intermittent aeration unit (20 m 3), a sedimentation/polishing unit (20 m 3) and a sludge dewatering bed (17 m 2), was used to investigate the impact of integrating an intermittent aeration unit on the overall process performance of the swine waste treatment system. The intermittent aeration unit was used for the treatment of a combination of raw liquid manure and anaerobically treated concentrated manure. Four operational ratios of aeration time to non-aeration time of 60 : 36, 5 : 1, 4 : 2 and 3 : 3 h were investigated. At an HRT of 3.2 days and a ratio of aeration to non-aeration of 3 : 3, the removal efficiencies for Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD 5), Total-N (T-N), TSS and Total-P (T-P) were 98.0%, 92.4%, 95.6% and 59.4%, respectively, for the intermittent aeration unit. Effluent concentrations of BOD 5, NO 3 −–N, NH 4 +–N, and TSS were 35 ± 12, 2.6 ± 0.8, 36 ± 28 and 78 ± 13 mg/l, respectively. The impact of integrating an intermittent aeration unit in the overall swine waste treatment which included solid/liquid separation, anaerobic treatment and final sedimentation/polishing units is apparent from its high treatment efficiency for BOD 5 and T-N. Economic evaluation of the swine waste treatment system integrating an intermittent aeration unit was conducted based on 300, 1000, 2000, 3000 and 5000 pigs. It was found that the utilization of biogas and digested sludge is essential for the benefit or profit of operating this treatment system. Integrating the intermittent aeration unit in the swine waste treatment system provides reduction of energy consumption cost and reuse/disposal of treated wastewater without causing deterioration of environmental quality. The integrated system also provides the possibility of developing a fabricated-packaged treatment plant or a central swine waste processing plant for application in land-limited tropical/subtropical areas.